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Applications Surge at Cooper Union

Mike Essl, against the wall, teaching a design class at the School of Art at Cooper Union. The college expects 3,300 applications for 265 spots in the Class of 2013.Credit
Librado Romero/The New York Times

Afreen Juli, a senior at the Bronx High School of Science, applied early to Cooper Union, a college in Manhattan that specializes in engineering, art and architecture. So did 10 of her classmates, the most ever from Bronx Science, one of the city’s most selective public schools.

Ms. Juli, who lives in Coney Island, said that she wanted to study film and art; she also applied to the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. But, as she explained in an interview: “N.Y.U. is pretty expensive and I might not be able to afford it. Basically, Cooper Union is free.”

Founded 150 years ago by the industrialist and inventor Peter Cooper, Cooper Union is perhaps best known among New Yorkers for its iconic brownstone hall near Astor Place where Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Barack Obama have held forth. But for many high school seniors who are applying to college in the midst of an economic meltdown, Cooper Union’s commitment to full scholarships — regardless of need — has given the institution an almost mythic allure.

Already among the nation’s most competitive colleges, with an admissions rate of about 8 percent — on par with Juilliard or Harvard — Cooper saw about a 70 percent surge in applications for early decision this year, after annual increases of 5 percent to 10 percent over the last decade. Over all, the school expected to receive 3,300 applications this season for the 265 spots in the Class of 2013, including 750 students vying for 30 seats in the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture.

“I’m pretty confident that the economy played a big role,” said the dean of admissions, Mitchell Lipton. “You probably had a lot of parents who said: ‘Look, I know you’re looking at Cooper Union. You ought to make it your first choice.’ ”

While many of the nation’s elite colleges underwrite the education of poor students, Cooper is among a handful of private colleges that are tuition-free for everyone (it does not, however, pay for room and board, though financial aid is available for living expenses, and many students from New York City live with their parents). Some of the free schools are even smaller and more narrowly focused, like Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass., with 300 students, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, with 160.

Cooper’s applications have climbed steadily since 2000, and really took off this year amid the recession. That has complicated things for the admissions office, which involves faculty members in reviewing hefty portfolios that include take-home tests to determine a student’s creativity as well as drawings, architectural models and narrative writing.

“The home tests are a series of exercises that are difficult to fake,” said Anthony Vidler, dean of the architecture school. “We find it a very good filter for looking for talents that aren’t necessarily indicated by grades and SAT scores, even though those numbers are very high.”

At Fiorello H. La Guardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts, 63 of the 556 seniors applied to Cooper Union, 14 of them early. At Bronx Science, 11 seniors applied early decision — up from 7 last year and 1 in 2006. “What you hear over and over is that early decision demonstrates interest loud and clear,” said Darby McHugh, the college coordinator at Bronx Science. “Combine that with the economy, and it’s a perfect storm for Cooper.”

Paul Shao, 17, a senior at Bronx Science who lives in Hollis Hills, Queens, and plans to study engineering, had his early application deferred. If he gets in, he said, his parents plan on using the money they save on tuition to buy him a small apartment in Chinatown.

“It would really help my family out a lot,” said Mr. Shao, the son of a librarian and an accountant who himself works part time for a test-prep center. “My sister’s a freshman in high school, and my brother is 8. I don’t want my parents to pay more than they need to for my college experience.”

Photo

James Cole-Henry, 21, a senior at Cooper Union, at work on the frame of a racecar at the Albert Nerken School of Engineering.Credit
Librado Romero/The New York Times

Each year, Cooper Union allots about $35 million to cover tuition. It is a tradition that was easier to sustain when the board of trustees included Andrew Carnegie and J. Pierpont Morgan. “There were five trustees and at the end of the year they would look at the deficit and divide by five,” said George Campbell Jr., the college’s president.

More recently, the college ran multimillion-dollar deficits every year, with its endowment bottoming out at $100 million after Sept. 11. But since then, the college changed its strategy regarding its significant real estate assets, renegotiating the lease on the Chrysler Building, which it owns; signing a 99-year lease on a large parking lot for $11 million; and leasing out its engineering building to a developer for $97 million. Last year, the college had its first positive financial ledger in a quarter century, and the endowment peaked at $608 million.

And because Cooper is so heavily invested in real estate, rather than the stock market, its endowment has held up better than most, and is currently valued at $594 million. This spring, the school’s first new academic building in decades is set to open at 41 Cooper Square.

“Cooper is ranked very highly both for quality and selectivity, and yet it’s an institution that has had to manage by its wits,” said Molly C. Broad, president of the American Council on Education, which represents two- and four-year colleges. “It is a great example of a set of characteristics that you just don’t typically find in American higher education.”

Yet Cooper Union and the other schools that offer free tuition have become so selective and are so focused that experts caution students and parents against putting too much stock in them. The Curtis Institute of Music received nearly 900 applications for about 40 spots in its incoming class, for example.

“It’s great that some people can go to these places, but they are few and far between and only the right school for certain students,” said Sandy Baum, senior policy analyst at the College Board and a professor of economics at Skidmore College. “And most people won’t get in.”

Those who do will enter an institution rich in history. The Foundation Building, where Mr. Obama gave a campaign speech on the economy in March, was also the site of the N.A.A.C.P.’s first meeting. The American Red Cross was organized there, and Susan B. Anthony had her offices there. It was built with its entrance facing the immigrant neighborhoods of the Lower East Side, symbolically welcoming the poor to a future of opportunity; each spring, graduates exit through another door, pouring out toward Fifth Avenue.

Ling Jessica Chu, a senior at La Guardia High School whose early application has already been accepted, said she was drawn as much to the small classes and the environmental credentials of the new academic building as the free cost. She planned to keep living with her parents, in Chinatown.

“I wanted to live in a dorm just for the experience, but then again I figured I’d save my parents the money,” said Ms. Chu, whose mother is a homemaker and whose father is a home attendant. “My parents were happy wherever I went. But I was pushing Cooper because of this economy.”

Other students, who come from out of town or out of state, have learned that tuition-free in Manhattan is hardly a free ride.

Natasha V. Broodie, a third-year art student from West Palm Beach, Fla., has had to juggle jobs to help cover her living expenses, namely rent on an apartment in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.

Last semester, she had three campus jobs, working a total of 52 hours a week. Now, she is looking for a fourth. “My parents don’t pay for any of this,” said Ms. Broodie, who has a 3.6 grade-point average. “I’m pretty much on my own.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Free College Has Allure Heightened By Economy. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe